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Friday, February 08, 2013

How Smartphone Adoption Escalated During 2012

As I look back at the enabling role mobile networks played in advancing the Global Networked Economy during 2012, I'm wondering what to expect this year. Last years' performance was amazing, as the smartphone became a mainstream device that people everywhere used to gain access to the internet.

Nearly 196 million smartphones and 451 million handsets were shipped during the fourth-quarter (Q4) 2012, according to the latest market study by ABI Research.

Smartphones accounted for 43 percent of all handset shipments in Q4, which pushed smartphones to 41 percent of all shipments in 2012.

Samsung retained its lead position overall by shipping 106 million handsets of which 60 million were smartphones in Q4 and capturing 31 percent of total smartphone shipments.

In 2012 Samsung grew its handset shipments by 21.6 percent and its smartphone shipments by 123.8 percent. Despite missing most analyst estimates in Q4, Apple grew its smartphone shipment share to 24.5 percent, up from 16.4 percent in Q3.

Looking at the rest of the pack, Nokia shipped 86.3 million handsets and 6.6 million smartphones in Q4 -- while BlackBerry’s shipments of smartphones declined to 6.9 million. ZTE had an excellent Q4 with 20.7 million handset shipments and 11.2 million smartphone shipments.

ABI believes that Samsung and Apple are both under pressure to maintain their market lead as less costly smartphones gain momentum entering 2013.

Technology optimization choices and a diverse handset portfolio are critical decisions over the next 6 to 9 months to come out ahead.